Apple WWDC 2017 – How to follow it and what to expect

At 6pm BST today (Monday, 1AM local time), Tim Cook will take to the stage for the WWDC 2017 keynote, during which he'll unveil whatever treats Apple has in store for us this summer.

So what will we see? And how can you follow the keynote? Read on for all the details...

How to follow the WWDC 2017 keynote

This year, WWDC is taking place in San Jose, California, rather than in its usual home of San Francisco. The time zone is the same, though, and the event kicks off at 10am PST, which for those of us in Malaysia, it's 1am.

All of that's fine, of course, but if you don't want to sit through the whole thing yourself you can let us do the hard work for you. We'll be tweeting live from the event on our Twitter channel @stufftv and we'll also have comprehensive coverage of the event here on the site.

What to expect at WWDC 2017

This year, Apple’s been tight-lipped about the event, and few leaks have emerged. Our list below is therefore a mix of rumour mill, best guesses, and wishes.

That said, we're getting pretty good at this predict-what-Apple-will-announce thing, so hopefully we won't be too far off the mark.

iOS will turn it up to 11

The iOS release schedule is like clockwork. New iPhones show up in September, and they get the new iOS. We won’t see new iPhones at WWDC, but will get a preview of some iOS 11 features; close attention may help us figure out what Apple’s upcoming smartphone revision might bring.

As for iOS itself, rumours point to a dark mode for night time, a smarter and more natural-sounding Siri, and interface updates (chunkier text; more texture; and, with luck, getting rid of the intrusive volume change icon).

Hello, macOS – again

OS X became macOS last year, but the update was business as usual, bar welding Siri and Touch ID to the Mac. Apple could this year use iOS 11’s arrival as an excuse to match version numbers, also giving us macOS 11. Which is exciting if you’re a neat freak.

For everyone else, rumours point to FaceTime group calls and, well, not much else. So we’re into wish-list territory again, with many hoping iTunes will be split into separate apps. (They’re likely to be disappointed.)

We’d most like to see Time Machine wrench itself into the present day – it’s very much about hard drives, when it should embrace the internet, Backblaze-style. And if Apple allows you to back-up your entire Mac to iCloud (rather than just sync specific folders and documents), that’d be good for its services bottom-line, too.

tvOS and watchOS comeback special

Apple has an apps problem on Apple TV and Apple Watch. The former should have been a gaming powerhouse, but Apple seems uninterested. Apple Watch recently saw big names drop support for native apps, including eBay and Google. How Apple plans to reinvigorate developer support for the platforms is unclear, but WWDC may reveal all.

On watchOS, one rumour surrounds glucose monitoring, further cementing the device’s position in healthcare. On Apple TV, there are rumblings about multi-user set-ups, which makes sense. After all, Apple might argue people should have their own iOS device, but most families/groups only have one Apple TV per telly.